By Alexandria Saurman
Planning a wedding isn’t the easiest task when life’s other responsibilities get in the way. Fortunately, there’s a solution to make your special day — and everything leading up to it — more relaxing: hire a wedding planner.
“Would you buy a car without insurance?” asks Heather Miller, a longtime wedding planner and owner of Southern Maryland-based Hitched by Heather. “Why would you plan a wedding without a wedding planner? We are your insurance.”
Heather has helped coordinate or planned on her own over 350 weddings and her company has led more than 200, she says. She started Hitched by Heather seven years ago and has since grown the company to eight employees who offer a multitude of services such as a month-of coordinator, partial planning services, full planning services and elopement options.
Hitched by Heather serves Southern Maryland, Annapolis, Washington, D.C., Virginia and more, even outside the DMV region, Heather says. For destination weddings, she has traveled to Texas, New York, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida and beyond, and has contacts in other countries and on other continents.
During her years of experience, Heather has seen many aspects beyond her control go wrong, such as a vendor showing up late, a band calling out one hour before arrival time, plumbing difficulties and a tent blowing away. Almost anything can go awry, and she says she has never had a wedding go flawlessly, so “You need someone who has the experience to say ‘I know how to fix that.’”
Heather shares some of these experiences as well as tips and tricks on her blog, hitchedbyheather.com, which covers everything and anything, from confessions of a wedding planner to travel tips — such as “How to honeymoon in Italy” and “10 tips for airplane travel with an infant” — to beauty and decoration pointers.
With experience as wide as Heather’s, what’s her advice to engaged couples? “You need to be realistic in your expectations, your budget,” she says, and “what you guys want your day to be about. ... Think about you guys as a couple because we are so programmed to think about how everyone else is going to enjoy this day when this day’s really about you guys.”